For all of you who ae sold on the 3 month window -- read "Use of p24 Antigen Screening for HIV May Be Desirable in Primary Care" AEGIS page. That "12.4" percent is coming from "some date". Whether it's the 6 week or 12 week "window" it show the p24 is a "quicker" testing tool that the "gold standard EIA".

You interpretation of the article is interesting. The 12.4% had already tested positive. I don't know what the date thing is about. You didn't meantion that the PCR RNA is considered 100% while the P24 is only considered 88.7% reliable. Below is the complete article.

Use of p24 Antigen Screening for HIV May Be Desirable in Primary CareReuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (01/03/01)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------New research indicates that the p24 antigen assay may be useful in primary care practices for the diagnosis of primary HIV infection. The prospective study of 436 patients with symptoms suggestive of primary HIV infection, including 12.4 percent who had a positive result on a virologic test but undetectable HIV antibodies or indeterminate Western blot test results, found that no sign or symptom correctly predicted acute HIV infection. Scientists, led by Dr. Eric S. Daar of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, report that the HIV RNA assay was more sensitive than the p24 test (100 percent vs. 88.7 percent), but it was also much more expensive and had lower specificity. In an editorial accompanying the report in the January 2 Annals of Internal Medicine (2001;134:25-29), researchers from the Brown University School of Medicine support the use of the p24 antigen assay over the HIV RNA test, even if it does not detect a small percentage of HIV infections.

Does anybody know if the P24 test is an accurate measure in those "rare" cases where a person does not produce antibodies to HIV and therefore tests negative on the gold standard EIA? In other words, for the many of still freaking out after negative EIA tests beyond 6 months due to beliefs either that we are among those who just do not produce antibodies OR we are infected by a really unknown strain of HIV , would a negative P24 test be CONCLUSIVE and finally shut our window?Best Regards --- a 36-monther who couldn't help but put her 2 cents in

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